Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591-1666), better known as 'Guercino', was a prolific draughtsman throughout his career as a painter. Drawing became a means of generating ideas for the artist, both in his highly elaborate preparatory drawings for paintings, and in his small sketches of genre scenes.

Guercino delighted in drawing the everyday life that surrounded him, as seen in three drawings from the 1620’s: Interior of a Kitchen, Baker’s Shop, and Two Women Drying their Hair. These whimsical drawings of domestic and interior spaces may be viewed as windows into the seventeenth-century way of life, as well as to the artistic practices of the time.

Danielle Carrabino completed her first M.A. in Italian Renaissance art at Tufts University, and last year completed her second M.A. in Seventeenth-Century art at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She is currently a research student at the Courtauld, where she is specialising in Caravaggio’s late career.